The limits of collaborative consumption: Would people really share their belongings?

An unofficial Google news blog Google Operating System has reported that the search giant is playing around with a potential new service called “Google Mine” — a Google+ feature that would allow users to share their real-life possessions with their social network.

“Google Mine lets you share your belongings with your friends and keep up to date with what your friends are sharing,” the blogpost says. “It enables you to control which of your Google+ Circles you share an item with. It also lets you rate and review the items, upload photos of them and share updates on the Google+ Stream where your friends get to see and comment on them.”

Google hasn’t commented publicly on the report. It is constantly testing out new features and products, many of which never see the light of day. So if Google is, in fact, tinkering with Google Mine, it, too…